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Monday, February 16, 2015

The book Effective Python is now available in digital editions. The author, Brett Slatkin, is a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Google. From the book's site:

[ He is the engineering lead and co-founder of Google Consumer Surveys. He formerly worked on Google App Engine’s Python infrastructure. He is the co-creator of the PubSubHubbub protocol. Nine years ago he cut his teeth using Python to manage Google’s enormous fleet of servers. ]

From the description of the book on the site:

[ The Python programming language has unique strengths and charms that can be hard to grasp. Many programmers familiar with other languages often approach Python from a limited mindset instead of embracing its full expressivity. Some programmers go too far in the other direction, overusing Python features that can cause big problems later.

Effective Python provides insight into the Pythonic way of writing programs: the best way to use Python. It builds on a fundamental understanding of the language that I assume you already have. Novice programmers will learn the best practices of Python’s capabilities. Experienced programmers will learn how to embrace the strangeness of a new tool with confidence. ]
The book is a part of the Effective Software Development series of books, with Scott Meyers as the Consulting Editor (for the series). Meyers wrote both the books Effective C++ and More Effective C++, some years ago. I had read the former book (Effective C++) pretty much fully, soon after it came out, and it was very good. IIRC, it was the success of Effective C++ [1] that lead to the decision to create the Effective Software Development series.

[1] I was told by an acquisitions editor at McGraw-Hill that Effective C++ sold in the neighborhood of 50,000 copies.